The Georgia Southern Botanical Garden (nearly 11 acres) is a botanical garden

Botanical garden

A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

 featuring many unique and endangered plants with many native to Georgia. The garden's main entrance is located at 1505 Bland Avenue, Statesboro, Georgia

Statesboro, Georgia

Statesboro is a city in southeast Georgia, United States, and is the county seat and most populous city of Bulloch County. Statesboro has a population of 28,422 and the Statesboro, GA Micropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 70,217...

, a few blocks from the main Georgia Southern University

Georgia Southern University

Georgia Southern University is a national public university located on a campus in Statesboro, Georgia, USA. Founded in 1906, it is part of the University System of Georgia and is the largest center of higher education in the southern half of Georgia offering 117 academic majors in a comprehensive...

 campus.

The garden's staff offers a variety of instructional programs, plant sales, and workshops during the year with a focus on gardening. The garden is also used by Georgia Southern University as well as others as a place for festivals and celebrations. One of the more notable celebrations is the yearly Wine, Moonlight, and Magnolias fundraiser held by Georgia Southern in the Spring around April. The garden usually provides an annual Arbor Day

Arbor Day

Arbor Day is a holiday in which individuals and groups are encouraged to plant and care for trees. It originated in Nebraska City, Nebraska, United States during 1872 by J. Sterling Morton. The first Arbor Day was held on April 10, 1872, and an estimated 1 million trees were planted that day.Many...

 event offering several varieties of seedling trees to the community.

The main grounds for the Georgia Southern Botanical Garden were willed to Georgia Southern University by the owners of the land, Dan and Catharine Bland. The garden is centered on an early 20th century farmstead the house of which, Bland Cottage, has been renovated into a visitor's center and place for meetings. The botanical garden has a number of specialized areas including the Heritage Garden, Rose Arbor, Children Vegetable Garden, Camellia Garden, Native Plant Landscape Garden, Native Azalea Collection, Bog Garden, and walking woodland trails.

The walking woodland trails have benches scattered about so that people can sit and rest while enjoying the birds and other wildlife that live within the gardens. On one woodland trail is the Kennedy Outdoor Classroom with a small raised stage and benches that is used for some botanical garden presentations.

Several species of birds spend time in the garden including robin

American Robin

The American Robin or North American Robin is a migratory songbird of the thrush family. It is named after the European Robin because of its reddish-orange breast, though the two species are not closely related, with the European robin belonging to the flycatcher family...

s, wood thrush

Wood Thrush

The Wood Thrush, Hylocichla mustelina, is a North American passerine bird. It is closely related to other thrushes such as the American Robin and is widely distributed across North America, wintering in Central America and southern Mexico...

, brown thrashers

Brown Thrasher

The Brown Thrasher , sometimes erroneously called the Brown Thrush, is a bird in the Mimidae family, a group that also includes the New World catbirds and mockingbirds.-Description:...

, mocking birds

Mockingbird

Mockingbirds are a group of New World passerine birds from the Mimidae family. They are best known for the habit of some species mimicking the songs of other birds and the sounds of insects and amphibians, often loudly and in rapid succession. There are about 17 species in three genera...

, various species of sparrow

Sparrow

The sparrows are a family of small passerine birds, Passeridae. They are also known as true sparrows, or Old World sparrows, names also used for a genus of the family, Passer...

s, and cardinal

Cardinal (bird)

The Cardinals or Cardinalidae are a family of passerine birds found in North and South America. The South American cardinals in the genus Paroaria are placed in another family, the Thraupidae ....

s, all native to southern Georgia. Squirrel

Squirrel

Squirrels belong to a large family of small or medium-sized rodents called the Sciuridae. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots , flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa and have been introduced to Australia...

s also live on the grounds. Bee

Bee

Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...

s and butterflies

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 are usually busy with the various flowers. The garden has a large number of flowering plants including camellia

Camellia

Camellia, the camellias, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalaya east to Korea and Indonesia. There are 100–250 described species, with some controversy over the exact number...

s, azalea

Azalea

Azaleas are flowering shrubs comprising two of the eight subgenera of the genus Rhododendron, Pentanthera and Tsutsuji . Azaleas bloom in spring, their flowers often lasting several weeks...

s, flowering quince

Quince

The quince , or Cydonia oblonga, is the sole member of the genus Cydonia and native to warm-temperate southwest Asia in the Caucasus region...

, rose

Rose

A rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...

s, magnolia trees

Magnolia

Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. It is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol....

, redbud trees

Cercis

Cercis , is a genus of about 10 species in the subfamily Caesalpinioideae of the pea family Fabaceae, native to warm-temperate regions. It contains small deciduous trees or large shrubs commonly known as Redbuds...

, and others.

Bland Cottage and the Georgia Southern Botanical Gardens are located at 32°25′15.2"N 81°46′26.7"W.